This is one of those previews. I’m hesitant to post pictures that are out of context but had to spotlight some of the points that made my gut churn, tears well and heart beat just a mite faster.

Tomorrow is the release of Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye issue 12. 1 year in and I’m in love with the comic and characters. It’s getting pretty hard to watch some of the things James Roberts, Alex Milne and Josh Burcham are putting these guys through.

The whole 5 page preview can be found at FullMetalHero courtesy of IDW Publishing.

Panel pic #1:

Magnus is taking on Hun-Gurr on the left, stomping some dino-con underfoot, shooting one guy on the right and launching two missiles – all at the same moment – and after transforming too. Yep, “he is really good at fighting.”

I love this main panel – it shows the gloriousness of comics in one image – it could be considered a still image, but it also clearly shows a passage of time (vehicle, multiple attacks, movement, smooshing). And you can’t beat Swerve and Tailgate watching from afar.

Panel pic #2:

Snaptrap gets on panel briefly before getting a sword shluckted through the back of his head. Guess which Autobot did that?

I love comic sound effects. This one is nicely masked within the image too.

Okay. This one is REALLY out of context, so you may lose the impact I felt. The third panel is from Page 4, and it is a character i’ve particularly enjoyed so far this series – Swerve. He’s a fast talking, joke-cracking bar man who has gone through a lot this year. Now look at him…

Panel pic #3:

Swerve!!! How did this happen!!! He doesn’t have a face. Is he alive? Unconscious? The preview doesn’t reveal this but just hits me smack in the gut with this image. It’s haunting.

I’m not going to put too many words on this post because I really want to show off this amazing page of comic work!

However, some context.

A few months back the Comics Experience Creator’s Workshop monthly challenge was to write a single page script. As many writers know, putting a whole story in a short space IS a challenge. My first experience of this was crafting the Inkman story “Dead Lines” (which can be viewed for free here) as a 5 page story.

Creating these single page comics was inspired by Warren Ellis’ “Three Panels Open” feature and I came up with two ideas. Amazingly, during the same period the artist’s section of the workshop were tasked with finding scripts to practice their own skills on.

So it is without further ado that I present a reverse-narrative 3 panel tale “BRUTAL CONSEQUENCE” – with amazing art by Jason Folkes and Gannon Beck. Please check out their work at the links below!

between my regular reading of Transformers, TMNT and other great comics, novels and also playing the Marvel Facebook game Avengers Alliance I noticed this article posted recently about the mediums of Comics and Film.

I thought it eloquently put a great deal of the conventions of film and comics alongside each other, with a veneer of nostalgia for a loved form and it’s more flashy, bigger brother.

Ivan Brandon (who has written Avengers, Batman and others) posted this back in July and it holds true for my POV on the limitations of comic-book movies when compared to the open possibilities of comics.